From The Republic:
Backers of a constitutional amendment to abolish North Dakota property taxes believe they have enough petition signatures to put the idea on the ballot…
…The amendment bars the state and local governments from levying any property tax, beginning Jan. 1. It says the Legislature must use other revenue sources, such as taxes on sales, income and energy, to decide how to replace the revenue that local governments will lose…
As the backers of the initiative point out, as long as the government can take your property for failure to pay taxes, you never really own your property. I heartily agree – property ownership is something which should not be trifled with. Once a person or a family owns a bit of land, it should be theirs until they voluntarily relinquish it by sale or gift. The only time a person should ever be dispossessed of their property is when government needs it for strictly government purposes – no transferring it to someone else who promises to pay more taxes (and, of course, even then only after paying fair market value for it).
At the core of economic life is the ability of a person to create or earn wealth. In a properly functioning, just society each person should be able to make enough – by working hard and living frugally – to obtain property; especially land and a home upon that land. And this property must be unalienable except by voluntary action. It should never, ever be able to be taken away by a person or government for any reason whatsoever. The only way to really have a free and just society in the long term is to ensuring the widest possible ownership of property by the bulk of the population. Such property ownership encourages work, savings and sobriety. It tends to a conservative economic and moral viewpoint. It works towards sanity.
I’ve not come across a proposal I’ve ever more heartily agreed with. I wish the backers of this amendment the best of luck in their efforts, and I hope it spreads around the nation.
HAT TIP: Mish’s
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